In the battle royale that is a Giants-Dodgers series the out-of-towners out-pointed the locals in the first round and pinned them flat in the second. On Friday we were treated to a Buster Posey grand slam in Dodger Stadium, a Ka-Bar to the throat of the Los Angeles horde. The final was 9-5 behind a ragged but effective Chris Heston. Rookie Mike Broadway had a few yips in relief, but you had to like his live arm and dazzling stuff. His nickname is "Bone Crusher."
Today we saw a rejuvenated Tim Hudson get staggered with a couple of big blows early in the match but counter-punch like a champ the rest of the way. The Giants pounded out two-run homers from Justin Maxwell and Brandon Belt in back-to-back innings to seize the lead and never look back. The final was 6-2. Hunter Strickland got five outs, three via strikeout, in an impressive appearance.
Third round tomorrow with Tim Lincecum for the orange-and-black.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
6 comments:
I can really appreciate some of the details in this series. That Latrine sure looks to play a bit smaller from the drought or whatever. Both teams are trading doubles. But we've hit our HR with men on, the enemy has had no such luck. Huddy gets on with a hit and scores. Frias bunts badly and Posey guns Rollins at 3B. (Some beautiful play by Duffy showing he's getting more familiar with the hot corner). Big difference between pitchers at the plate today. Panik doesn't allow himself to get deeked by Joc in CF on a bloop, whereas Puig and AGon kind of lollygaging on the bases.
LAD really should be a tougher opponent, so I still know they can bring trouble to us. With guys like Guerrero, Turner, and/or Van Slyke coming off the bench compared to us with McGehee, Arias, and... Kontos or Affeldt batting? LOL! Two great games so far, love how the Giants are competing. Cheers. BEAT LA!
JC & I considered going to Raley Field to watch Cain again but we got lazy and stayed home.
This is what we missed, courtesy of the River cats web site: "Cain (0-2, 4.50) went 6.2 innings in his second River Cats start, throwing 89 pitches, 59 for strikes. He gave up 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks while striking out 6. It looked like the Aces were going to strike early, but Cain pitched around a first inning error by Hector Sanchez and stranded Reno's Nick Buss at third base.
He retired the next eight before the Aces came through with a run in the fourth, tying the game at one. Cain held Reno at one until the seventh, when Lalli singled home Cody Ransom to put the Aces up 2-1.
Overall, Cain looked sharp on the mound, pitching around two errors behind him and keeping the River Cats in the game. He departed with Sacramento trailing and a runner on first with two outs in the seventh but the sold out crowd showed their support for the three-time World Champ with a standing ovation. Cain responded with an acknowledging wave to the crowd."
Lots of exciting pitching decisions are on the horizon. It looks like Matt and Peavy will return next homestand against the rookies so that means 2 guys go down. Broadway is obvious but Strickland is hard not to keep. And does that mean that Lincecum would take over the Strickland role, or is that for Petit? What role could Tim have in a bullpen anyway? Is Vogelsong the long guy now? He has done well lately and it is tough to drop him from the rotation too. I think it will be MadBum, Cain, Peavy, Hudson, and Heston. With Vogelsong ready to replace whoever needs it. I guess that makes Lincecum the last guy in the pen, no defined role except garbage time (split with Vogelsong and Petit). Brutal situation for the Freak.
Of course, today he will probably pitch a fabulous game ( although he has missed "quality" status five times in a row now ) and make the decision that much harder. I kinda knew all along that Tim would spend some time in the bullpen and it looks like that time has come.
It's a good problem to have. Let's hope Cain and Peavy really are healthy and ready to contribute. And don't count Timmy out until they drag his corpse off the field. Sure, they may have to, but until then I'm "getting my Freak on" for no. 55!
We are now 9 - 2 against LA this season. If only we could do so well against the bottom feeders in the division.
So they just dragged Timmy's corpse off the field in LA. Reminds me of the bullfights I went to in Madrid.
Post a Comment